To mark the 4th of July Holiday this week, I was thinking of a very iconic All-american inspiration - Walter Elias Disney.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that Walt Disney holds that kind of inspiration for my work as a creative, and a special place in my childhood and to my children's childhood.
His special kind of inspiration doesn't only affect artists the world over, but children the world over - for they are the truest dreamers of dreams.
I hope that many this summer will get to visit The Walt Disney Family Museum In San Francisco and the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, Missouri. These are fine organizations that should be enjoyed and throughly supported in every way possible.
Some time ago, I was in a conversation about Walt and wanted to make my point loud and clear that he is as relevant today as he was in his own time. I'd like to share that here, along with images from many projects of mine - from Logos to sketches and Banners of 'Uncle Walt'. As you may already know, Walt's visionary genius inspires generation after generation.
The old-timers are not the only ones who recognize the inspiration of Walter Elias Disney, but every single tried and true-blue Disneyphile actually wants more Walt.
There is not only a nostalgia for this kind of hopeful Americana idealism, but a great need to feel that same sense of direction and ethics which centered country and family in Walt's day.
That's the brand Walt established - the ones you find from remembered pages of a child's morality tale of faith, courage and strength, hope and perseverance; it is in the heroics of praise-worthy deeds of history, and in the discovery of the fantastical that charges creativity with determinism and fortitude.
You see, to Walt, that hope could take form and the possible world is what we make of it. This is the type of idealism that could only lie in the heart and mind of a true Visionary who changed modern culture as we know it.
Now, Disneyland lovers, as well as history buffs, film geeks, animation students, and Art professionals, all value this extraordinary legacy. But so do parents and grandparents, and so do kids. They recognize it in the master leadership and master showmanship of so many skilled, talented, and gifted individuals who brought this gossamer stuff of dreaming into concrete experience.
Yet, it is not only the art medium that bore his name, but this thing called an idea that firmly took shape and still has its presence among us.
Walt was a creative, artistic, imaginative genius, an idea man, a doer - and he knew good business. Walt knew the business of giving people what they want, what they dream about, making it have dimension and depth. That was this American paradigm on which Walt Disney built his dynasty.
And not only did it serve Walt's generation - but it is virtually impossible to NOT find his indelible brand of imagination on childhood since.
So, I ask you: is Walt Disney sufficient for the masses?
The answer is a resounding yes!
Few individuals in the whole of history can reach so many with such untempered joy, as did Walt Disney. God bless him!
 HAPPY DREAMING! THANKS, WALT! |
| ALL ART IMAGES BY THE ARTIST / COPYRIGHT © GINA L.F. DRAKER. 2009-2013 (NOT TO BE REPRODUCED OR DUPLICATED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION) |
